Google Maps says to put 533-575 12th St S into your GPS if you are using that…??????

Cheers,

Marc

PS – Bring extra footys!!!

PPS - Sign up on our e-mail list to contact myself or the Starfish President.

PPPS – Let’s get a good turnout – word has it that St. Pete might move us to a better field if we have a good showing… and we may have team shirts, etc…..

PPPPS – Rescheduled scratch match in Ft. Lauderdale vs. Squids on August, 23.Let me know if you can make it. If we show decently, they will come up and play us for a return trip.

Redbacks finish as 2010 Division III National Champion runner-ups

October 10, 2010

Redbacks finish as 2010 Division III National Champion runner-ups - In one of our best appearances at Nationals in the history of the club, we crushed Columbus, beat North Carolina handily after a close first half, and absolutely pummeled Las Vegas. We then played in the Division III national title game against Austin. It was a hard fought battle but we were defeated 4 4 28 to 2 5 17. More details to follow when I have time.

cheers,

Marc

Metro #1

July 23, 2011

A great game on our new field. Unfortunately I have been too swamped to write a game report... however, Janni's team came from behind and won with 3 minutes left in the game.... thought our team was going to finally win one....

Redbacks defeat Tigers in impressive home win

September 10, 2011

Saturday at 1pm - The day started with 2.5 inches of rain falling in one hour leaving the West end of the field covered in huge puddles. The North Carolina Tigers won the toss and chose to attack first on the dry East end of the field (bad choice!!!) In the opening quarter, our engine room showed the dominance that would last the entire game with Phil winning the hitouts and Janni, Cam, Tom, and Alex constantly breaking out of the pack and feeding the forwards. Besides CJ, most found the wet ball impossible to mark but NC found out that they could not get a wet ball out of their end. Florida goals resulted from great crumbing and some quick handballs to running players such as Frankie. 1st quarterFlorida Redbacks 4 1 25North Carolina Tigers 0 2 2The second quarter saw the Redbacks take their collective foot off the gas. We acted as if we had won already. Effort was low. People were not going in to get a contested ball, Tigers were allowed to roam freely. They strung together several good kicks and marks but then choked under the defensive pressure of players like Nick, Brad, Tim, Conner, Steve and Mus and kicked quite inaccurately. We also discovered it was quite difficult to get the ball out of the wet end of the field. 2nd quarterFlorida Redbacks 5 2 32North Carolina Tigers 1 5 11Halftime saw the Redbacks coaching staff getting on the players to step it back up… apparently the team listened in the 3rd quarter. Our middle players took over again and refound their primary target. The Tigers could not stay with CJ no matter what they tried – he hauled in numerous marks and kicked 3 straight goals that broke the Tigers spirit. The ball was constantly bouncing around in front of their sticks. And yes, I did kick the most pathetic goal in footy history which trickled through the posts at about .00001 miles per hour : ) Newcomer Kyle had some great possessions with his speed and elusiveness but was not able to put a kick through. 3rd quarterFlorida Redbacks 10 7 67North Carolina Tigers 1 8 14For the final quarter, the Redbacks dominated early and put 3 more goals on the board with good strong efforts from Joey, Frankie, Zach, Brad, Tony, Markham, and Jason. Kyle also took a spectacular mark which may have been the mark of the game. Near the end, the Redbacks did coast a bit and the Tigers showed some pride and kicked 3 goals of their own…FinalFlorida Redbacks 13 11 89North Carolina Tigers 4 8 32

Redbacks/Starfish taking on Ft. Lauderdale Squids

August 23, 2014 – 02:30 PM

*************************************************************Footy game in Ft. Lauderdale for the Redbacks Saturday August 23:So far we are represented by 10 players who have committed with a definite yes and we have 13 players who have given me several versions of possible yes (some are likely to be definite yes and some apparently need a lot of nudging).We have enough now to go down and play as the Squids and Houston (and maybe New York?) will give us filler players to round out our squad if we are short but I’d rather go down there and only have Redbacks and Starfish on our team.If you are one of the maybes or if you are lurking on the list and haven’t been in touch in a while, now is the time where we could really use you stepping up and supporting the team. I think it is important that we pull off a successful road trip as it will help us immensely in rebuilding this team (with St. Pete).The city of St. Pete has really embraced footy and if we do this well, the Squids will come up here and play us and we may get access to a really really nice field!!!So… get in touch soon and commit to joining us on this road trip. I can be reached at mkarver@usf.edu.

Some details - Looks like we will be playing at Central Broward Regional Park.3700 NW 11th Place, Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33313.I think the game is scheduled for 2:30 but I'd recommend coming earlier as it will be after earlier games end.Dean will be renting a van and first picking up St. Pete players (I imagine you all will work out a meeting place?)He then plans to be in Tampa at 7:30am to pick up Redbacks players – it is not definite but I think the meeting place will be near Brad’s house. I will get back on this.We will then drive down to Fort Meyers – we are planning to pick up a couple of players there…. And then off to Ft. Lauderdale.If you are in Jacksonville and interested in playing let me know, I think we may have some players coming down from there and I will try to help coordinate you.We also have players coming from Orlando – again let me know and I will try to get you all coordinated.

By the way – I believe the Starfish are planning a weekday practice in St. Pete. If interested, contact Dean at info@starfishfc.com

Cheers,

Marc

Redbacks travel to New York

May 1, 2010 – 01:00 PM

Tournament Report:

This past weekend, 18 Florida players flew up to NY for the most challenging road trip tournament our club has ever attempted in the past 7 years. We expected to at least get to enjoy cool Northern weather but it was not to be as it appeared Florida weather snuck on to the plane with us leaving us with 2 games against 2 of the best teams in the country in humid, 89 degrees conditions. All the more challenging in that Boston brought around 27 players and New York had well over 30 players. We were going to get our exercise!!!

In our first game, we opened against the Boston Demons. Unfortunately, we had to start while Alex was at the train station picking up Rob. Boston was able to take advantage and put 2 goals on the board early but after some fierce hits from our defense, they knew we could not be taken lightly. The rest of the quarter saw the Redbacks battling and winning many contested possessions and our defense repelling Boston forays forward but we struggled to get the ball all the way up to our forward line. At the half, Boston was up 5 5 35 to 2 2 14. The second half saw the Redbacks come out fired up and a tight battle ensued. Boston was quite surprised in that are unknown team was proving to be an equal match for a highly touted division 1 opponent. Although we hoped for victory, we were proud that we tied them 1 goal each for the 2nd half. The final score was Boston 6 8 44 to Florida 3 4 22.

Unfortunately, the tough battle with Boston had us pay a price. We lost our full forward and our full back to injuries for the rest of the day while others continued playing despite injuries but were obviously hampered. Thus, tired and undermanned, we next had to play 3rd ranked in the country New York while they were coming in completely fresh. Not ideal….

Initially we battled them fairly evenly but slowly the tide turned and New York put intense pressure on our defense. They would clear and the Redbacks would bring the ball across midfield but we just could not get the ball up to our forward line again. The Redbacks held under the pressure and were still within a respectable distance at the half down 4 4 28 to 0 0 0. The second half started with more Redbacks injuries and a couple of New York goals. We then realized that we were playing down one man with no bench. New York graciously lowered their numbers to a 17 vs. 17 game. For a while we played them evenly with some powerful hits delivered by some of our Redbacks defenders. However, in the last 10 minutes, our energy reserves collapsed and NY piled on goals. The final score was 11 7 73 to 1 3 9. However, know this… Florida did not leave that field demoralized. I think we realized that we were undermanned and that we were playing New York not under optimal conditions (our 2nd game and their 1st). If they had been our first game, I’m pretty sure we could have given them a handful (probably would not have won but it would have been a match like the Boston match).

The last match of the day saw New York defeat Boston 5 3 33 to 2 9 21.

Cameron Freeman, Aaron(Screech), and Connor were BOG for day.

It should be noted that Screech rucked for us against much bigger ruckmen and actually won most of the taps against Boston and probably did quite well also in the first half against the NY ruckman. He was also much quicker to the ground for the ball than his bigger opponents. Cam was all over the field constantly helping us transition the ball out of our own end. Connor was a force not allowing marks and absolutely hammering any opponent who dared have the ball near him. I think he knocked three players out of the game across 2 games.

Alex who coached us adds, “I'd also mention that the intensity was excellent but skills and game plan let us down. We started without a formal address before game 1. The back line with Mus Basil Steve and CJ did very well. Overall a good performance by the team, considering the injuries we had too.”

I’d also add that Alex and Brad had solid games playing in the middle (notable as Brad’s debut playing in the middle).

Goals were by Connor, Cameron Freeman, and Cameron Pinnock

As for the after party, the Redbacks had a great night out hitting New York and celebrating CJ’s birthday. As CJ put it, “We are still the best fifth quarter team in the country!” I got in at 4am but I can tell you that there were Redbacks still out on that town – bet CJ was not feeling well on Sunday : )

Upcoming schedule:

Thursday May 6: Practice 6:30 USF front Fowler field – light training to work out the soreness from the weekend

Directions: (From South Tampa ) Take I-275 to Fowler Avenue . Go right (from northbound lane) towards East Fowler. Continue on Fowler until you reach the University of South Florida 's main entrance (about 5 miles). Turn left at Leroy Collins Blvd. Turn right at the next set of lights, Alumni Dr. Continue until you see training fields on your right (the front Fowler fields). – turn right into the parking lot right before you get to the fields. Park your car. Walk to the 1st field right next to the parking lot.

Thursday May 13: Practice 6:00 USF front Fowler field – time to step it up – with our full numbers and if we actually practiced together, we’d be a handful for any team in the country. Part of the reason we lost our games was due to our lack of training together. Those games should be a wake-up call that we need to get to training to sharpen our skills and learn to better work together. New York and Boston ran in numbers with smooth handballs back and then out to the side. We are capable of the same but only if we train together!!!!

Saturday May 15 - Training to be announced at USF front Fowler field

Thursday May 20: Practice 6:00 USF front Fowler field

Saturday May 22 - Training to be announced at USF front Fowler field

Thursday May 27: Practice 6:00 USF front Fowler field

Saturday May 29 - Training to be announced at USF front Fowler field

Thursday June 3: Light training 6:30 at USF front Fowler field

Friday – June 4th: Many on team flying to Philly.

Saturday – June 5: Mega-tournament in Philadelphia with Philly, NY, Baltimore, North Carolina, and Florida (fun in Philly at night)

Sunday June 6: I think many are flying back to Tampa.

If for some reason you cannot make the Philly tournament, come to training anyway… your presence bolsters our numbers and allows us to do better game-like drills.

Metro 2010 season Game #1 Report - Sharks vs. Warriors

July 17, 2010 – 10:00 AM

Metro Game #1 Report:

On Saturday, July 17, Janni’s Gold Warriors (yes, they have a name) met CJ’s Green Sharks for the first truly organized metro game since the old Tampa Devils vs. Sarasota Sharks days. Although the game started at 10am with warm but not bad temperatures, by the 2nd quarter we were up in the 90’s and by the second half all players had to deal with a heat index above 100. In addition, there was a wind that favored one side as the quarter scores will indicate….

The Sharks started with the wind slightly at their back but initially were not able to control play. Alex and Janni were winning the ball out of the middle and feeding their forward line. However, the wind was making a mess of their shots. At one point, the Warriors were up 0.5 to 0.0. Their inability to convert against the wind cost them as it allowed the Sharks to not lose confidence, slowly Cam and CJ started to get control of the ball and send it the opposite way. Marc was able to convert 2 for goals but unfortunately for his team this would be the last he would be heard from all day. Jarred kicked one goal foreshadowing some quality play that would follow.

At quarter time, the Sharks led 3 4 22 to 1 7 13.

In the second quarter, now with the wind, the Warriors took over. Even though Cam was winning the ruck taps, Janni, Alex, Tom, and Joey were reading the taps and sending the ball forward accurately. Adham slammed home 3 goals while Tom contributed 2 more. It actually could have been worse except for absolutely phenomenal defense from Beast(Nick) – he spoiled a literal onslaught of kicks forward. Brad V. was also seen everywhere knocking around Warriors. CJ often came all the way back to kick the ball out of our end. Jarred provided one of the bright moments of the quarter for the Sharks.

Half time score: Sharks 4 5 29 Warriors 6 8 44…..

The third quarter with the wind, once again saw a momentum swing in favor of the Sharks with CJ and Cam once again controlling the middle. New recruit Kendale was starting to collect possessions and showing far better fitness than most of the team. Sadique and Justin also were getting the ball and sending it forward. Unfortunately, Jarred was the only forward who seemed to be able to collect the ball near the goal as he kicked two goals. Most of the time, Jeff Grubb and C-Rod were intercepting kicks forward and sending the ball the other way. The Warriors returned to their errant kicking and stymied the Sharks come back when Stephen kicked a goal.

At the end of the third quarter, it was still a tight game
Sharks 6 7 43 Warriors 7 12 54.

In the final quarter, against the wind and now down a player, the Sharks collapsed. For the Warriors, Ryan took over the game. No one could cover him anymore as he picked up loose balls and took marks and continuously fed the ball to the forward line. Tom also seemed to have an eye for the ruck taps and constantly was collecting the ball and sending it forward. Stephen converted 2 goals and Tom added 2 of his own. Beast continued to spoil many an entry pass but could not stop the tide of open players.

Overall, a very good turnout of players and also good to see the return of Simon Morgan and the appearance of a new Aussie, Tony.

The schedule:

Training this Thursday in South Tampa from 6:30pm-8:30pm. Brad Freeman has found a field and a number of people have expressed interest in having a kick before this Saturday’s game. The field is located at 3910 West Fair Oaks Avenue, Tampa, FL 33611-2241. Put it in your GPS or MapQuest. The fields are behind the school on the south side. This should be good for you South Tampa players who always say you would come to training only if it was closer… this also should be way more convenient for some of you Pinellas folks…

Saturday July 31 – Metro #2: 5:15pm at USF back soccer IM fields (the upper field by the recreation center) to help set up field for game; Please be on time – USF has allowed us to have the field for a game starting at 6pm. (but watch your e-mail during the week as we were also told that they could change the time on us… assume it will be 6pm for now).

Directions: (From South Tampa ) Take I-275 to Fowler Avenue . Go right (from northbound lane) towards East Fowler. Continue on Fowler until you reach the University of South Florida 's main entrance (about 5 miles). Turn left at Leroy Collins Blvd. Turn right at the next set of lights, Alumni Dr. Continue until you see training fields on your right (the front Fowler fields). These are closed for repairs. Drive past the fields to a T-intersection. Turn left and take this road to the end (pass the Sun dome) to another T-intersection – turn right (baseball field will be on your right). Our field will be on your left. Continue on this road till you get to the first left. Make this left and park. We will be on the upper intramural fields before you get to the lower intramural fields which are right before the softball fields.

What to bring:
If you have them, wear black shorts and black socks. If you have Green or Gold socks that matches your team color, that’s even better.

At this time we do not have Green and Gold jumpers, we would have to order a new set. Bring a Green or Gold shirt that matches the team you will be on – free agents bring both colors to be safe.

Don’t forget some basic stuff that people have forgotten in the past – mouthguard, water bottle, your boots (cleats)…

8/14 - Metro #3

8/28 - North Carolina trip

9/11 - Metro #4

9/25 - Metro #5 – final game and Metro season award ceremony and awarding of keg…

10/9&10 - Nationals in Louisville

Redbacks almost pull off huge upset!!!

April 9, 2011 – 12:00 PM

So close… This past Saturday, the NY Magpies, the reigning Division I National Champions traveled down to the Sarasota Polo grounds to take on the Florida Redbacks. Last year, up in NY, the Magpies absolutely destroyed the Redbacks. This year, the Redbacks were ready. Saturday was a perfect day for Florida footy. It was a pleasant 92 degrees with a light breeze and moderate humidity…NY had been training in 50 degree weather. However… at the start of the first quarter, one could not tell that NY minded the heat. NY was absolutely dominant. They controlled the middle and were actually quite impressive to watch with players in perfect position. Lots of nice hand ball movement and kicks to the chest for easy marks. The Redbacks looked stunned at the NY level of skill. With maybe 7 minutes gone, the Redbacks had allowed 3 goals… it looked to be a long day… however… the Redbacks adjusted. They tightened up on the Magpie players to keep them from getting free. Suddenly… there were lots of contested balls and the Redbacks were winning them. Delivery was rather sloppy but the Redbacks appeared to have weathered the initial storm.

Quarter 1NY Magpies 3 3 21Florida Redbacks 0 1 1

The second quarter saw a different Redbacks team. They were fired up and played with a belief that they could hold their own against the talented Magpies. The battle for the middle was evenly contested with great play from the Redbacks rotating rucks and rovers. When the Magpies came forward, they were hit hard. There were no easy shots. As a result, the Magpies were quite surprised as the Redbacks started to close the gap going into the half.

Quarter 2NY Magpies 4 8 32Florida Redbacks 3 2 20

The third quarter saw more of the same. Now it was obvious that the Redbacks were feeling fired up. They were the fitter side as NY was suffering in the Florida heat. Florida began to dominate play. Unfortunately, the NY defense was impressive and never ever allowed any marks near the goal. The Redbacks kept intense pressure on the NY defense but found it difficult to get shots off and NY continually was able to put together a few kicks to get the ball out of their end. It would have been nice if the Redbacks could have capitalized more on their dominant quarter but none the less, the Redbacks felt they could really win the game as the quarter ended with the Redbacks down by just one goal.

Quarter 3NY Magpies 4 11 35Florida Redbacks 4 5 29

The fourth quarter started as the 3rd had ended. The Redbacks were fierce to the ball and suddenly there was a shot on goal… and the game was tied at 35!!!! The Redbacks were exhilarated!!! However, NY did not get the message that it was time to fold. In fact, the Redbacks received a sudden taste of what a National Champion is made of… NY turned it up a notch. Suddenly they dominated the middle. The smooth movement was back. The perfect kicks hitting perfect leads… in a stunning 5 minutes… NY kicked 4 straight goals!!!! The Redbacks were stunned… However, the Redbacks than showed what they were made of… they could have quit… but they did not… they tightened their resolve and fought back into the game. After that 5 minute blast, the Redbacks dominated again… however, dropped balls, errant kicks, etc. limited impressive fitness and impressive contested ball winning skills. In the end, the Redbacks scraped back a bit closer but not enough to lead to victory. None the less, every Redback left the field knowing he could hold his head high for giving an impressive fight against an impressive opponent.

BOGs Redbacks: Cameron Freeman, Brad Freeman, Rob, Janni Mirosevich, CJ Morton, Ryan Morton; Nick Myers; Ian and many others had impressive play that contributed to the tough battle that we gave NY!!!!

We have our second game coming up May 7 (we have requested a field location and time from USF and are waiting to find out what they give us.) Let us know if you can make this game ASAP as several players said they may not be able to make it. This is a very very important game. Last year we lost a close game in Philly by just 2 points as we missed a last second shot that would have won the game. On our home field if everyone shows up, we should be able to get revenge. If we played like we did against NY, they could be in trouble. However, we need better turnouts at training. Our biggest limiting factor is that we don’t train enough together to have the smooth passages of play that we are capable of… let’s see numbers out this Thursday

Thursday training:Training will be at USF for Thurs. 6:30pm-8:30pm. . Let’s get good numbers so we can be prepared for our second game.

Redbacks strong in the 5th quarter in Boston

June 25, 2011

Well… the Redbacks were spectacular!!!!!..... in the 5th quarter. We were out till 2am with lots of juicy stories that I cannot repeat...

As for the prior 4 quarters… well… we had a weak turnout to Boston, many of our starters were missing… you can probably guess where this is going – 9 players is not going to cut it – we had 9, Boston had 25… we offered to play 9 vs. 9 with them having a huge bench but they wisely declined. They made us take 5 of their players – in the first half, the first 5 were so-so, in the second half- we were still in the game, in fact, we had kicked 2 consecutive goals near the end of the 2nd quarter – Boston, rethinking their strategy gave us 5 new players – these 5 were… amazing to watch… and you know what… we deserved it… if you don’t bring enough players, you get what you get… and we were absolutely thrashed in the 2nd half… especially the 4th quarter… I can’t see to get a straight line on what our true final score was. I know that Boston had 17.17 119 … I think we had 4 8 32 but I’m really not sure… Nick played ferociously on defense but he was swarmed. Mus helped out where he could. Phil won most of the hitouts, our on-ballers had many first touches on hitouts, but they were then clobbered by the bigger Boston on-ballers and wings. Cam, CJ, and Alex many times worked together to get the ball deep out of our own end… only to see the ball come back… we just could not work the ball forward… Dave valiantly tried to get the ball forward but he most of the time had to be deep in our own end just to help Phil take marks on kick outs against the much bigger Boston team. Dan had a good debut for his first footy game and showed much future promise… Overall, it was painful but spirits were very positive… we tried hard, we knew that our full team could give them quite a battle and we were 5th quarter champions making it all worth it!!!!!

Redbacks defeat Roos

April 18, 2009 – 02:00 PM

Redbacks vs. Roos - Well, seems we got ourselves off to a good start on the season. The Nashville Kangaroos came down with a strong team only missing one of their key players and including the USAFL’s leading scorer Chris Moerman who kicked 13 goals in his first game this season against Baton Rouge. The Roos started strong and immediately targeted Chris resulting in 3 goals to the strong forward. The Redbacks knew they would need to make a change to keep him contained. Mus was switched on to the key forward and as we have seen many times before… Mus shut him down and left Chris scoreless for the rest of the game. The game stayed very close for the first two quarters but in the third quarter, our solid team play, skilled players, and better endurance started to win through as we started to pull away. The fourth quarter saw the Redbacks dominate play and finish them off with a final score of:
Redbacks 11 7 73
Roos 6 3 39
Best on Ground for the Redbacks were Alex and Jarred but it should also be mentioned that Cam played quite well and Janni made a great come back from his knee injury last year. Ryan Morton kicked 5 goals as Nashville could not keep him contained. CJ added two more with one a piece also from Cam, Alex, Janni, and Dymo. Our new ruckman Phil played impressively always giving us a good chance with his hit outs in the middle. Big thanks to Marcus from Ft. Lauderdale for coaching the team.

Florida Redbacks Tangle up North Carolina Tigers comeback attempt -

June 20, 2009 – 02:00 PM

Game Report
On Saturday June 20, the North Carolina Tigers (0-3) travelled to Fort Lauderdale to take on Florida United (which combines the Fort Lauderdale Fighting Squids with the Florida Redbacks. On a bitterly hot day in Ft. Lauderdale with the heat index around 115, 20 players from North Carolina came down to play against our combined Florida United/Saints/Squids/Redbacks team. Surprisingly, despite having home field advantage, our Florida team lost a lot of players before game time and only had 20 players also. It looked like we were in store for a very even match against one of the fittest teams in the country. What ensued was an unpredictable rollercoaster match in which momentum swung back and forth over large periods of time.

In the opening quarter, the Florida Redbacks dominated. Phil controlled the ruck taps to our dominant players in the middle especially US national team Revo player Dustin Jones and Janni Mirosevich. They followed with frequent deliveries to the forward line with numerous possessions by our uncatchable free floating forward, Ryan Morton(who probably totaled 25 to 30 possessions during the game). However, Ryan did his best impression of Hawthorne’s Buddy Franklin and peppered the goal area with points. Not to be out done, no one on the Redbacks was able to capitalize on our dominance as no one seemed able to kick straight. Jason Namour set a good tone for the team early on with some good tackles against a North Carolina team that early on was holding on to the ball frequently too long.
1st quarter
Florida Redbacks 2 8 20
North Carolina Tigers 1 0 6

The second quarter saw continued Redbacks dominance early on with Alex grabbing numerous possessions in the middle and delivering to our forward line. Through the first two quarters, Mustapha Turay had completely shut down North Carolina’s best player, Jason Heathcote, and intimidated their entire team with one of his monstrous hits. However, after slotting a few more goals early and seeing our lead grow to 31 points, the tide started to shift. Phil our ruckman hurt his back, the Redbacks started to get tired, and the North Carolina Tigers were still running.
2nd quarter
Florida Redbacks 5 10 40
North Carolina Tigers 2 2 14

The third quarter saw the Redbacks come out flat and the North Carolina Tigers come out fired up. Mike battled valiantly in the ruck but North Carolina was winning out of the middle and winning most loose balls. Often Redbacks were standing around gasping for breath (we really need to build up fitness). Instead of picking up loose balls, Redbacks were swiping at the ball with their feet – ask Janni what he thinks about that!!!!! Everywhere we looked, Tigers were running free. North Carolina came storming back but Florida was able to hang in there often bolstered by spectacular play and powerful tackles delivered by Nick (Beast) and Brad Vertescher. Both accumulated many possessions and knocked people around while much of the team was struggling. Heathcote was dangerous up forward for the Tigers and Tiger Revo Paul Duncan was starting to get on top.
3rd quarter
Florida Redbacks 6 13 49
North Carolina Tigers 5 6 36

Coach Marcus gave a rousing speech at quarter time but apparently it took a few minutes to kick in. The start of the 4th quarter showed more of the same from the 3rd quarter. North Carolina dominated and suddenly the scoreboard delivered a frightening message to the Redbacks:
Florida Redbacks 6 13 49
North Carolina Tigers 7 7 49
… and then we saw what the Redbacks were made of as they started to lift… Janni took over the game with lots of possessions. Dustin Jones seemed to come out of every pack running with the ball. Alex was getting lots of possessions and delivering with pinpoint accuracy. Mark Diamond (Dymo) and Cameron Pinnock were playing well. Across the field the Redbacks all got their second winds and the Tigers finally tired out and the game turned dramatically. Adham and Mus took numerous marks up in the forward line and even orchestrated the equivalent of an ally oop slam dunk with Mus marking close to the goal and handballing to Adham at the goal line who put it away.
Final
Florida Redbacks 12 15 87
North Carolina Tigers 7 7 49

Special thanks to Marcus for coaching us, Holly for being a life saver and running water out to us while we were dying, and to OC for umping bravely on his own in unbearable heat.

Cheers,

Marc

PS – It looks really likely that we will be starting new metro footy teams in St. Pete and Sarasota – watch your e-mail as it would be great if players from anywhere can come out and help these efforts. There may be a Saturday training from 10-12 either in St. Pete or Sarasota….

Redbacks split road trip to Baton Rouge

September 12, 2009 – 09:00 AM

On a cool and rainy day in Baton Rouge, 11 players from Florida traveled to Louisiana to take on the Tigers on their home ground and the Dallas Magpies. We had hoped for more players but the Ft. Lauderdale Squids all pulled out this week and we lost a few of our own. None the less, despite small numbers, despite missing several star players, we knew we had a good solid team.
Our first match was against the Tigers. In the opening half, the Florida Redbacks dominated. New recruit Nick dominated all across the middle. Our onballers were stellar – Janni, Dustin, and Alex seemed to grab everything out of the middle and were constantly feeding the forward line. The wet ball however made marks very hard to come by. None the less, Adham had a fair share of the ball and launched a number of shots on goal. Unfortunately, the Redbacks were not able to capitalize on our dominance as no one seemed able to kick straight.
1st half
Florida Redbacks 1 6 12
Baton Rouge Tigers 1 0 6

The second half saw continued Redbacks dominance but not quite to the same extent. Baton Rouge did have several forays forward but were repeatedly cut off by the excellent defense of Jeff Grubb (Grubby), Mus, Basil, and Beast (Nick). Baton Rouge did score once when a player not to be named lost his temper resulting in a 50 meter penalty and again when yours truly unfortunately let a ball slip out of his hands…. Besides those glitches, the kicking was much more on target with Adham kicking straight and Joey crumbing a goal on a ball into the goal square from Adham. Altogether a comfortable win and notable as it was the Redbacks first win ever on the road outside of nationals!!!

Final
Florida Redbacks 4 8 32
Baton Rouge Tigers 2 1 13

The Redbacks then had a break and watched the Baton Rouge Tigers take on Dallas… and it was not pretty. Baton Rouge only crossed mid-field twice the entire game as Dallas obliterated them… Literally the Dallas defenders stood there well rested – we had hoped that Dallas would get worn out by playing against Baton Rouge but this certainly did not happen.
Final
Dallas Magpies 12 18 90
Baton Rouge Tigers 0 0 0

So, despite seeing a devastating performance, our little Redbacks squad came out with our heads held high, confident that we could give the Magpies a tough match. We actually wanted to play 12 vs. 12 as we had our first game so that it would be our players vs. Dallas but Dallas wanted to play 16 vs. 16 since they had brought a lot of players. Thus, we were forced to take 5 additional players on to our squad. These players did try valiantly to help us but as one might imagine when one-third of a team’s squad is fill-in’s, this did disrupt our team chemistry….
The first quarter saw the Redbacks come out fired up… but the same could be said about the Magpies. A tough, hard hitting battle ensued with the Redbacks actually winning the center clearances. However, the deliveries from the middle players to the forwards were often not on target and even when they were on target, the Magpies defenders were getting better position and were usually first to the ball. Initially, the valiant Redbacks defense of Mus, Beast, Basil, and Grubby repelled the Dallas forays forward but eventually the relentless pressure and the inability of the Redbacks forward line to hold the ball forward resulted in the Magpies lighting up the score board with very accurate kicking.

1st half
Florida Redbacks 0 0 0
Dallas Magpies 6 2 38

At the half, the Redbacks switched some players around and discussed strategy to try to help keep the ball forward more often. For the most part the plan actually worked as Dallas was not able to pressure the Redbacks defense as much. The Redbacks actually had a few scoring opportunities but the shots on goal unfortunately were well off target. The Redbacks did end up with one behind for a tiny point of pride in not getting shut out. In addition, the Redbacks, despite missing numerous key players, did not give up and fought back and kept the second half close even with the highlight of Nick G. taking a brilliant speccy over a Dallas player – unfortunately he bruised his shoulder on the play and missed most of the second half.

This is the highlight of our season – we will be playing in the Division 3 playoffs – I expect that we will be seeded fairly high. Let’s go with a strong squad and end the season with a national title!!!!

I would like every player on the team e-mail list to e-mail me so I can start to figure out numbers – E-mail me if you are a Yes, maybe, or a No.

Travel Info – You will need to buy plane tickets as it is too far to drive. Round trip tickets are currently running around $150. Once I know numbers, we will reserve hotel rooms. Costs should be low as we will once again put 4 to a room unless someone wants a room to themself (let me know).

US Team tryouts/training – if you are under the age of 23 and interested in making the US national team, they will be having a training/skills session/try out on Friday Oct. 9 – let me know if you are interested… by the way, there will likely be Australian scouts present – this is how several of our guys ended up getting recruited to play in Australia over the years – Dustin, Justin, Danny, Cam, CJ….

Nationals Registration – you cannot play nationals unless you register – do this ASAP!!!!
Usfooty is offering a cheaper means of registering for nationals but you have to register in the next month. As you can see, do it now and it’s still a lower price ($60) then it will be if you wait to the end. You have two choices – register yourself (click on the big blue link below) or give me the money and any relevant info at training on Thursday (I’ll register anyone who gives me money ahead of time).
From USFOOTY
ALL players need to register and agree to the waiver PRIOR to playing any game for their club. We know clubs have already started and with the system not working earlier that would be impractical to adopt and impossible to enforce this year. Players are required to at least sign a hard copy waiver before playing any game to be covered under the League’s Liability Insurance program.
Clubs can direct payers to the registration button to the left on the usfooty.com homepage ....OR ....clubs can manually register multiple players at one time by sending a check for multiple registrations along with the names of the players they are mass-registering along with the check.
These are the player registration fees for 2009:

- $60 per player - if paid between September 01- September 30
- $75 per player - if paid after September 30, including registrations at Nationals.
- The fee includes participation at the 2009 Nationals
- No rebates if registered player does not attend Nationals.
- No discounts for students, first year players or women this year.
- No “name exchanges”. Once a player is registered that payment cannot be transferred to another player.
This is a USAFL Player - 2009 Season Registration (which includes participation at 2009 Nationals). The loadings are designed to encourage teams to register as many players as early as they can. If someone “comes out of the woodwork” later in the season, conveniently before Nationals, and they gain an exemption from the 3 point qualification system, that's fine, they can play, but they are going to pay more than the player who registered early and has been contributing to their club and Usfooty all year.

cheers,

Marc (mkarver@chuma1.cas.usf.edu)

Redbacks quick 2009 nationals summary

October 7, 2009

The Redbacks traveled to Cincy and combined with the Ft. Lauderdale Squids to form the Florida United Saints. We easily beat Columbus and Phoenix but lost again to our nemesis – Dallas (they won the Divvy III national title).

Redbacks with stunning sweep in Baltimore!!

May 21, 2011

I was not at the Baltimore tournament (I was in Germany) however… the update I received was impressive… Foolishly they had us play the NY B-team – and we thrashed them 98 to 7. But the really impressive story was playing Baltimore on their home ground…. And the Redbacks thrashed Divvy 1 Baltimore 66 to 2!!!!! Way to go to all the Redbacks that made the trip!!!!! This is turning into quite the impressive season for the Redbacks as we are now at 3 wins and one narrow loss to the top team in the US !!!!

USF metro footy starting up again

January 11, 2009 – 06:00 PM

Some good within club scratch matches prepared the Redbacks for a big win to open the season against the favored Nashville Kangaroos. Let's keep it up. We play scratch matches after training every Thursday at 6pm.

University of South Florida
front Fowler fields
Tampa, FL

contact Marc Karver at mkarver@chuma1.cas.usf.edu if you are interested.

EAFL Rounds 3 and 4 - Redbacks win!

June 25, 2005 – 02:30 PM

EAFL round 3 - Pittsburgh unable to travel and forced to forfeit games to Philly and Florida.

The North Carolina Tigers have beaten the Florida Redbacks by 17 points at the Tigerdome in Raleigh, handing the Redbacks their first loss of the 2005 season.

In a high standard game at the hot (mid 90’s), humid Tigers home ground, which was on the top of a hill (not humid in Florida terms but still humid), the Redbacks kicked the first goal of the match with the Alister to Dustin combination firing as usual. The Redbacks looked to be coming out strong, true to form, hitting hard as usual and winning contests. However, little did we know that this would be our last one goal lead until the fourth quarter!!!! The Tigers, with a young fit group of rotating on-ballers changed strategies and no longer attempted to win the ruck taps. Instead they played to intercept. Alister won every ruck tap in the game but the Tigers constantly intercepted his taps or tackled Dustin, Jeff, or James as soon as they had their hands on the ball. Suddenly it was the Tigers bursting out of the middle with the ball and scoring multiple times to take the lead. Luckily, loyal team supporter Red Walker came out of retirement and played his first game in over a year and kicked his first of four goals. Until he left the game injured in the third quarter, he was a constant spark up forward either scoring or creating opportunities for other Redbacks forwards.

The sequences of play on both sides of the stadium in the first quarter and throughout the game until five minutes to go in the game were excellent with great ball movement and contested marks all over the field. Each time one team scored, the other responded.
At quarter time the scoreboard displayed only a one point difference.
1Q: Redbacks 4.3.(27) to Tigers 4.2.(26)

In the second term the Tigers dominated the first 10 minutes of play. The Tigers ball getters pressured the Redbacks normally dominant midfield and continued to feed the ball to their forward line. The Redbacks defense was under constant pressure but led by a sterling effort by Perry throughout the game, damage from the onslaught was minimized. With the Redbacks stunningly down by four goals, we refused to give in and fought back in the last 5 minutes of the quarter scoring 2 quick goals. Players like Jeff and Justin stepped up and kept the ball in the forward line to create scoring opportunities.

At the major break the Tigers held a 9 point lead.
2Q: Redbacks 6.7.(43) to Tigers 8.4.(52)

The third term opened with the Redbacks responding to Captain Rob’s inspiring half time speech. We controlled the ball for the early part of the quarter and scored goals and behinds to narrow the Tigers lead. The Redbacks forwards were all working well together – Red (first game in a year), Adham (15 year old in his first full game), John (in his 50’s in his first game ever), Marc (5’10” in his first USAFL game at full forward). However, Red then went down with an injury that took him out of the game. As suspected, Red was the spark at half forward – new recruit Steve, first time ever even touching a footy, ran hard but could not replace Red’s experience. The Tigers once again took control of play in the middle and at their half back line and stopped any forward attempts. Thus, at the final change, the Tigers maintained a slim lead.

3Q: Redbacks 9.11.(65) to Tigers 10.7.(67)

To start the fourth quarter, the Redbacks came out firing and dominated play with one goal and three behinds inspired by the great play of James, Jeff, Alister, and John and Justin, and Chris and David and Rob and Perry from the back line. The Redbacks were up by seven and looked potentially able to put the Tigers away despite having no bench and exhausted players. However, exhaustion won out; the Redbacks appeared to lose one step, then two steps… suddenly it seemed as if there were Tigers everywhere across the middle of the field – despite valiant attempts by Sean and Perry and Greg and others to get the ball out of our end and to the forward line, we could not get past the Tiger midfield wall. The Tigers relentlessly but inaccurately attacked with behind after behind after behind. The Redbacks seven point lead was whittled down to two points. Then with five minutes to go, the dam broke and the Tigers kicked three straight goals – the Redbacks had nothing left to answer with and the Tigers were winners at the final siren.

NY defeats Florida

September 10, 2005 – 02:00 PM

New York travelled strong down to Florida bringing 27 players and lots of their own spectators - definitely set the bar for how a team should travel. They were quite fit and literally out ran our Redbacks. We kept it close but they owned the 3rd quarter.

Not official quarter scoring but probably close estimates:

1st
NY 2 4
Florida 1 0

2nd
NY 3 4
Florida 2 1

3rd
NY 3 3
Florida 0 0

4th
NY 2 1
Florida 1 1

Official final score:
NY 10 12
Florida 4 2

Florida Redbacks Competitive in Division 2 at Nationals

October 2, 2005

Our season officially ended last weekend with the completion of our 2005 Nationals bid. We went 1-2 with both of our losses being hard fought and close competitions. In fact, we lost a close game to the eventual champions of division 2, the Golden Gate Roos. The Redbacks then played St. Louis later in the day and put together a perfect effort - this was probably the most complete team game ever played by the Redbacks in beating a very strong team.
It is always difficult to claim victory from a losing record but there were many victories over the weekend and in the past season. We were able to be a competitive force in the EAFL, playing for the conference championship in our first year. We are also considered a strong player in division 2 which is a great platform to start on next year. In the end, it was our lack of depth on the road that hurt us in regular season play and Nationals. Building our road team will be the major focus in 2006!

Congratulations are in order for our women's team. Runners up (2nd in the country) in their first year is a fantastic effort.
they obliterated their opponents in their first game, lost a nailbiter to Atlanta in their second game - they almost came back from an 18-0 deficit and lost by only 4. They then won their next game something like 84 to 0 to make the Women's title game - they then fought valiantly against Atlanta but eventually succumbed to defeat - the women's team also could probably benefit from increased depth, fitness, and training together - hope to see lots of the Florida women dedicated to training over the next year!!! Anyway, congrats to them for bringing home the first medals
(runner-ups) in Florida footy history!!!!!!

Contact team officials about end of year BBQ and awards day on November 12 from 2pm until ?????.
This promises to be a fun day and a chance to relax and reflect with fellow players, spouses, kids and supporters. WE hope to see you there, more details to come!

Last thing - Dustin Jones swept the divvy two medals winning most consistent and best on ground.
Even better, his girlfriend, Holly won Best on Ground for the women -
It should be mentioned that Annie Jones was also practically unstoppable and probably received some BOG votes across games.

Currently the Redbacks as a whole are in their off season.

Tampa's men and women will continue to train and a University of South Florida footy club is being started. Contact Marc Karver for more details - mkarver@chuma1.cas.usf.edu

Redbacks battle at nationals

October 9, 2006 – 09:00 AM

The Redbacks traveled to Vegas for nationals. Despite leading at half time in all three games, the Redbacks only ended up beating St. Louis while losing close games to Baton Rouge and San Diego due to injuries and lack of fitness. The Redbacks showed excellent nightlife fitness staying out all night in Vegas - the goal next year is to show the same level of fitness in playing footy!!!

Redbacks with Big Road Win at NC

August 28, 2010 – 02:00 PM

Pregame Friday… - My game reports don’t normally start with a pre-game report but this road trip was a bit different than others… usually we get in, eat together, and get some sleep to be ready for the next day… not this time… the team was out till a little past midnight going to parties down by North Carolina State… they would have stayed out later if “Smasher” had not finally pushed the team back into the van and forced them to go back and get some sleep. .. Saturday at 2pm - The day started deceptively with some cloud cover but by the start of the game it had burned off and it was hot (in the 90’s) and humid. We had 17 players and the NC Tigers had 35… we knew the temperature and the numbers were going to test our fitness…. In the opening quarter, the NC Tigers started out dominant. The won the ball in the middle and pushed forward with good kicks and marks and launched shots at our goal. Unbelievably, they could not kick straight… this was probably helped by our very physical defense. Basil Benjamin had one of his best games ever with numerous spoils and marks, picking up and clearing loose balls from defense. Troy Tasoff also was spoiling many NC kicks and picking up and clearing many a loose ball from defense. Before we knew it… we were down 1 5 11 to 0 0 0 but it would have been worse if not for our impressive defense. About 7 minutes into the first quarter, Alex Mirakian broke out of the middle with the ball and launched an accurate shot to put the Redbacks on the board. This effort and others by Alex seemed to wake the team up and bring us back into the game. 1st quarterFlorida Redbacks 2 1 13North Carolina Tigers 2 5 17The second quarter saw the Redbacks onballers take control of the game. Sam Bandy (one of our entertaining undergraduates) was all over the ground taking marks, collecting contested balls, leading great hand ball sequences, switching fields… and booting all over the field due to too much pregame activity…. He was ably assisted by Pece Fats Micevski who also seemed a ball magnet, shaking tackles and being part of some excellent handball sequences. Cam Freeman was having another high possession many good handballs game. Janni also was part of some dominant midfield sequences. They delivered up field to the elusive Ryan Morton as his fast turns often left defenders in his dust and he then would send the ball up inside 50. Adham Makki took some nice marks but his shots were all off for the day. Nonetheless, the score shifted in our favor.2nd quarterFlorida Redbacks 6 6 42North Carolina Tigers 4 7 31The third quarter was much like the 2nd quarter. The Redbacks continued to dominate. Our ruckman Connor Morton battled well against NC’s much bigger ruckman. When the ball came forward, Joey Maggio had his best crumbing game ever as he was on every ball that went to ground resulting in two goals including a sweet one soccered through. Brad Freeman was working well helping our midfielders get out of the middle and had a great goal where he kicked the ball through literally right out of the air. 3rd quarterFlorida Redbacks 10 9 69North Carolina Tigers 6 8 44For the final quarter, the Redbacks knew they had to keep NC from coming back into the game… and our defense was up to the challenge. Stephen Noe and Nick Meyers were forces to reckon with as they did a solid job on the NC forwards by delivering numerous bone crushing hits. Frankie Hebscher had an impressive game delivering hits and getting and clearing many a loose ball. CJ Morton sparked the defense in the second half intercepting NC deliveries and delivering the ball back to our dominant midfield. The ball was up forward quite a lot in the final quarter but by this time, a bit gassed, our marking and kicking was a bit shaky but enough to hold on for an impressive road win against a solid North Carolina team. FinalFlorida Redbacks 13 13 91North Carolina Tigers 7 9 51

5th Quarter in downtown Raleigh – Cam was voted BOG for the 5th quarter for the 2nd trip in a row but was challenged mightily by the antics of Sam and Fats. CJ and Basil posted an early challenge but faded… Riders of the free bus did enjoy getting to our 2nd destination well before the “escorted” walkers….

Redbacks win big over Philly Hawks

May 7, 2011 – 02:00 PM

Redbacks won big at home vs. the Philly Hawks 147 to 47… the most points Philly has ever allowed in the history of their club!!!! One day I may have time to write the game report...

Redbacks on TV - Channel 47

The Redbacks made the TV debut tonight on channel 47 in a 10-15 minute segment about our wonderful Club and highlighted by our big weekend win against Baltimore/Washington.

The show will be replayed this Friday and Sunday night on Channel 47 at 8:00pm. In coming days there will be a streamed version of the segment on our website.

Philly Tournament Report

June 5, 2010 – 01:00 PM

The weekend of June 5, the Florida Redbacks flew up to Philly for our second challenging road trip tournament of the year. This was the first time in club history that we had two road trip tournaments in the same season. Temperatures were in the low 90’s on the day but an overcast sky kept it from feeling too hot not to mention a very very strong cross field wind that affected all kicks and unfortunately scoring shots.

In our first game, we opened against the tourney hosts, the Philadelphia Hawks. The Hawks went with the wind slightly at their backs (mostly cross field) and were able to put together more successful attacks despite the valiant efforts from the Redbacks. Phil did well on the ruck taps and our on-ballers were able to get many touches, however, with the wind and great Philly pressure, few kicks made it successfully to our forward line. Basil had an unbelievable individual effort breaking tackles to kick a much needed goal. Along with several other times he fought fiercely to get much needed possessions of contested balls. Nick and Tom did an outstanding job of fighting off Philly kicks forward and thus were able to keep us in the game. At half-time, Philly led 3 2 20 to 1 1 7. In the second half, now with the wind, the Redbacks took over, Phil was getting most of the hitouts and Cam and Dustin were constantly breaking free and delivering to the forward line. Steve was able to bomb two from Center half forward through the pipes. Unfortunately, many other shots were off and Marc was not able to bring down any deliveries as they kept bouncing off of his cast. With about 3 minutes left and down just 4 points, a ball was delivered to the center square that deflected off of his hand and bounced toward the goal line, he kicked it through the posts but unfortunately about 9 inches too late. Then, with about 30 seconds left (down 3), Brad V. caught a ball in the goal square turned and fired…Final score: Philly 4 5 29 Florida 3 9 27…..

Later in the same day we were set to battle our old rivals the North Carolina Tigers whom we have never beaten outside of Florida. Once again we lost the opening coin toss and started against the wind. Phil dominated the ruck taps and created lots of opportunities for our on-ballers. Cam and Alex put many deliveries up to the forward line, however, the Redbacks kicking continued to be erratic as we sprayed shots everywhere except between the posts. Marc even took a Marc just outside the goal square and managed to kick it out on the full… not even a point – if we had a team oven mitt, I would have won it right there. North Carolina was able to put together several nice kicks in a row to pressure our defense but once again especially with the efforts of Tom and Screech (Aaron), many of the attacks were repelled. None the less, under the windy conditions, North Carolina was able to put one through the sticks to take a lead into half time. North Carolina 1 2 8 Florida 0 4 4. In the second half, we continued to control the ball with Brad Freeman seemingly everywhere coming up with possessions and delivering the ball forward. Jazza and Joey also had a number of possessions and were able to get the ball up front….But besides a goal from CJ Morton (making up for his absolutely brutal kick along the sideline), we just could not score. With about 6 minutes to go we found ourselves down, 2 4 to 1 4 then Cam kicked a behind and it was 2 4 to 1 5. With about 5 minutes to go, the ball was delivered up to Marc on a bounce, he turned and shot and it was blocked but bounced back into his hands, he then kicked again and was able to give the Redbacks their first lead 2 5 to 2 4. North Carolina immediately pressured the Redbacks defense but once again Tom, Nick, and Brad V. (who delivered some powerful hits on the day-I think he broke someone’s ribs) were there to clear the ball away. Then at the end of the game, Brad Freeman kicked the ball about 8 meters toward the goal and the NC fullback took the grab but was tackled by Marc leading to a throw when the official called play on. Marc then kicked the final goal to give the Redbacks a bit of breathing room.Final Score: Florida 3 5 23 NC Tigers 2 4 16.

As for post-party, the Redbacks had a great night out hitting Philly. Phil won Best job choosing a good night club and Steve definitely won the most likely deserving a 50 meter penalty party foul award. Alex and Marc won the good sportsmanship award as the only Redbacks to actually go to Philly’s after party while the rest of the team went for Philly Cheesesteak. We of course did all make it out later on without getting into too much trouble….oh, yeah, Cam, besides winning BOG for the weekend, also won Best on Ground for off the field plays…

Metro Game #2

July 31, 2010 – 06:00 PM

Metro Game #2 Report:

On Saturday, July 31, Janni’s Gold Warriors (1-0) met CJ’s Green Sharks (0-1) for the second metro game in the “Win the Keg” Metro season. The game started at 6pm with high humidity and temperatures in the 90’s but there was a cooling breeze blowing 5-10mph (this would definitely affect play)…. It was going to be an interesting match as the Sharks were missing many of their regulars but had filled in with young, quick new recruits while the Warriors brought out their team of veterans….

The Sharks started with the wind but initially looked a bit shell shocked as the new recruits were learning the game. Gold dominated play initially as Janni, Alex, and Tom had numerous possessions with quality kicks and hand balls between them and they were quickly up 2.2 to 0.1 with other opportunities missed out on the full or it could have been worse. Fortunately, the defense of Marc and Jordan was able to spoil numerous other entries and whenever they cleared, it seemed CJ would appear out of nowhere and mark the ball… this was a foreshadowing of an unbelievable 40 touch performance by CJ Morton where he willed the Sharks to a tight battle the entire way. As Matt and Greg started to figure out the game and started working well with CJ, Tony S. was presented with a number of opportunities that he finished off with an impressive 3 goal first quarter haul. Joey kicked the Warriors 3rd goal when he snuck behind the defense to receive a nicely delivered hand ball from Adham.

At quarter time, the score was knotted at 3 3 21 to 3 3 21.

In the second quarter, now with the wind, the Warriors literally formed a wall on defense that the Sharks could not penetrate. Every entry into the forward 50 was taken by Stephen N. and Grubby leaving no opportunities for the Shark forwards. On the other hand, the Shark defense held strong under an onslaught generated by Alex, Janni, and Tom. Jordan and Marc received significant help as Sadique, Matt, Greg, and CJ came back winning many loose balls and getting the ball repeatedly out of the defensive end of the field. Nonetheless, Adham and Tom were able to find the sticks and give the Warriors the lead…

Half time score: Sharks 3 4 22 Warriors 5 5 35…..

The third quarter, even with the wind, initially did not show a clear favorite as possession was constantly changing in the middle of the field. The few attacks were generated by the Warriors as Tony K and Dustin K assisted their strong midfield in sending the ball forward. However, once again kicks only were out on the full or behinds. The score crept up to 5.7 to 3.4… However, the Sharks finally started to work the ball forward past the tough defense of Stephen and Grubby by working up the sides often starting with kicks from CJ to Stephaun who would then find Matt or Greg. Tony bagged his 4th goal and CJ added his first to bring the battle to a bare 2 points.

At the end of the third quarter, it was a tight gameSharks 5 5 35 Warriors 5 7 37.

In the final quarter, with the wind, the Warriors changed strategy – Janni, Alex, Tom, and Grubby pushed forward more, Joey moved from full forward to provide more support toward the center of the ground. They were confident that the wind and Stephen N. would repel any Shark attacks… and they were right… the warriors pressed into the Sharks forward 50 constantly. CJ and Brad V. fought valiantly to keep the ball clear but with the wind and accurate passes, the Warriors could not be stopped…

Metro Game #3

The first quarter started even. Sam started strong and broke out of the pack early at times leading to goals or kicking to Jarred who kicked a few. CJ like usual had his strong game with many touches all over the field. Game seemed evenly matched but the Sharks were up to start at the end of the first quarter - Warriors 3 2 20Sharks 4 2 26 In the second quarter, the Warriors came back and took the lead with strong play and goal kicking by Ryan.Warriors 8 5 53Sharks 7 5 47 In the 3rd quarter, the Warriors piled it on despite the efforts of Brad V., Beast, and Dustin. Sam and the other Warriors controlled much of the play with Brad F kicking a few goals. The Sharks offense looked tired and was shut down by some tough D led by Stephen N. Matt found his way open a lot for the Warriors and had a lot of the ball but missed a number of shots which allowed the Sharks to hang around.Warriors 12 11 83Sharks 9 7 61 In the final quarter, the Warriors continued to control the ball and thus won the quarter. There were a few nice passages of play going through Janni (who kicked a few goals) until Brad V. got a bit carried away and nailed him. Jarred for the Sharks had a few great marks and goals.Final Score:Warriors 16 15 111Sharks 12 9 81 Warriors now lead 3 games to 0.Goal scorers – I have no idea – please tell me since I wasn’t there:BOG (based on votes of 4 team leaders):Warriors: Sam; Janni; Ryan; Stephen; Matt; BradSharks: CJ; Dustin; Jarred

Redbacks Pull Off Stunning Upset

May 14, 2005

In one of the biggest upsets in USAFL history the Florida Redbacks have defeated the Boston Demons, the nation's 5th ranked, team by 17 points in Sarasota, Florida. The Redbacks scored 9.8.62 to the Demons 6.9.45.

Florida started with dominance in the centre. Alister dominated the ruck against the ruckman for the US national team. His taps continuously found Dustin and Anthony who effectively delivered to the forward line. Boston was stunned as the Redbacks scored five unanswered goals spread amongst different players in the first quarter. Meanwhile, the Redback defense held strongly – the halfback line of Jarred, Justin, and Janni was inpenetrable. The few times the ball went deeper into Redback territory, Perry was there to repel any Boston efforts. In the last three minutes, the momentum started to shift as it got hotter and hotter (game temperature was in the mid-80’s. Boston adjusted in the second quarter and proceeded to take over – realistically, Boston dominated the last three quarters of the game, however, the Redbacks discovered that Perry at fullback was an unstoppable force. He completely neutralized Boston’s talented full forward and punched away anything remotely threatening (and there was plenty). When the ball went to ground or was not marked by Perry, he effectively delivered to the half back line or to the centre players to mount a counterattack to ease the pressure. It should be added that Greg Banlowe also did a valiant job in protecting the Redbacks lead. In the third quarter, Mario went down with an injury – Heath filled in valiantly and kicked a much needed goal as opportunities for the Redbacks forwards declined considerably as the game continued. By the final quarter, both teams were exhausted by the up and back game pace and the brutal Florida sun. The Demons mounted an effective and determined comeback, looking more like the team used to playing in the heat, but the Florida defense held them at bay and the difference in scores at three quarter time was too great for Boston to make up. Florida was proud to pull such a huge upset over such a highly ranked team but was also thankful that the game did not last ten more minutes!!!

Notable points: throughout the game, Alister was seen all over the field often pulling down crucial marks against two or three contesting Demons.

Adham Makki had a spectacular debut playing for the Redbacks – this soon to be star 15 year old had numerous possessions and kicked his first Redbacks goal!

Danny Harrison played a very strong three quarters on the wing until cramping up in the 4th quarter (we all knew how he felt)